WICHITA — Chit Chat Holdings has filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy as a way to settle a billing dispute, says John Hennessy, a member of the company.

"It's a discrepancy in billing with Sprint," he says. "A big one."

Hennessy won't give specific numbers, but he says the dispute is over "several hundred thousand dollars" of data usage.

"It's real complicated," Hennessy says.

Chit Chat used to have retail outlets but now is a mobile virtual network operator. That means it is distributing phone service by buying service through major telecommunications companies and repackaging and selling it.

Late last year, Chit Chat began service in New York City and other East Coast areas through a company that Sprint purchased.

"This monitoring company didn't receive this information either," Hennessy says. "And consequently it left us holding the bag."

No one with Sprint could immediately be reached for comment.

"Sprint is trying to tell us that we're responsible ... for that usage, and we're telling them, 'No, we're not,'" Hennessy says.

"We couldn't come to any satisfactory resolution to this issue," he says. "It's too big to just pay and walk away from."

Hennessy says Chit Chat has a good relationship with Sprint's sales department.

"These big entities like this, you're dealing with different groups and different branches within the companies," he says. "It's not like you're dealing with one individual that has complete control over a company."